An increasing number of companies and other enterprises are reducing their costs by migrating portions of their information technology (IT) infrastructure to cloud service providers. For example, virtual data centers and other types of systems comprising distributed virtual infrastructure are coming into widespread use. Commercially available virtualization software such as VMware® vSphere™ may be used by cloud service providers to build a variety of different types of virtual infrastructure, including private and public cloud computing and storage systems, which may be distributed across hundreds of interconnected computers, storage devices and other physical machines. Typical cloud service offerings include, for example, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Many enterprises prefer to adopt IT arrangements involving a hybrid cloud that includes a combination of private and public clouds. This is due at least in part to cost issues associated with deployment of private clouds, and security issues associated with use of public clouds. Hybrid clouds allow the enterprise to obtain the significant advantages of both private and public clouds while avoiding some of the drawbacks associated with using only private or public clouds.
However, there are also significant challenges in adopting a hybrid cloud approach. For example, one major challenge involves determining when and under what conditions to utilize a private or public cloud for particular types of enterprise data. Issues associated with such a determination may include meeting criteria such as performance metrics and legal and regulatory requirements. Conventional practice is deficient in this regard, and often relies on rigid and inefficient policies.